lacevslahWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“lace” and “lah” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,355
“lace” frequency rank
#44,894
“lah” frequency rank
54249
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lace lah
Definition A light fabric containing patterns of holes, usually built up from a single thread. Alternative spelling of la.

Where the eye mixes lace and lah

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lace
3 ch
lah

Why the eye confuses lace with lah

A purely visual mix-up. lace (/leɪs/) and lah (/lɑː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lace is recorded at frequency rank #9,355, classified as anoun, pronounced /leɪs/. lah is at rank #44,894, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɑː/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 54249, this pair ranks #142,576 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lace vs lah

Shared letters: al. Private to "lace": ce. Private to "lah": h.

"lace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lah" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lacealce · lacce · laec · lcae · llace

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lace" and "lah" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/leɪs/ versus /lɑː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lace" or "lah"?
"lace" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,355 in our English list, against #44,894 for "lah". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "lace" and "lah" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #142,576 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lace" and "lah" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lah vs LSC". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #142,576 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list